140 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



bird, and some others. The second are the less familiar 

 birds that frequent the woods and wild pastures, and 

 which would probably be exterminated by reducing the 

 whole forest to park or tillage. Among these may be 

 named the little wood-sparrow, one of the sweetest 

 of American songsters, nearly all the thrushes, the 

 towee-finch, and many of the sylvias, and wood 

 peckers. 



To preserve the first of these species little is neces 

 sary to be done except to avoid destroying them ; but 

 to insure the multiplication of the second, we must 

 study their haunts, the substances provided by nature 

 for their food, the plants that afford them shelter, and to 

 a certain extent labor to preserve all these for their use. 

 The little wood-sparrow is never heard in the heart of 

 our villages, unless they are closely surrounded by 

 woods. Yet this bird does not live in the woods. He 

 frequents the pastures which are overgrown with wild 

 shrubs, and their undergrowth of vines, mosses, and 

 ferns, that unite them imperceptibly with the green 

 sward by which they are surrounded. He is always 

 found in the whortleberry pastures, and probably makes 

 his repast on these simple fruits, in their season. He 

 builds his nest an the ground, in a mossy knoll, under 

 the protection of a thicket. Every bird is more or less 

 attached to a particular character of grounds and 

 shrubbery ; and if we destroy this character, we drive 

 this particular species from our neighborhood, to seek in 

 other places its natural habitats. Hence we may 

 account for the comparative silence that pervades the 

 grounds of some of our most admired country-seats ; 

 for with respect to the wants of even our most familiar 

 birds, it is possible that cultivation may be carried too 

 far. 



